7 comments:

I haven't been there in over a year but I don't know what new building they were referring to (don't recall anything). And the house was not in any recent danger of demolition...it has been the Museum of Art for as long as I can remember.

Doug, the porch was added when Childs Frick bought the estate. If memory serves me correctly, the designer was Sir Frederick Allom, who also re-did the interiors to a more Frick-like standard. Codman was very fond of the end pavilion/recessed center composition, and knocked it off a number of times, in both Georgian and 18th century French version. Personally, I find him mostly better with interiors, and his exteriors are always a bit crowded in composition, and flat.

I seem to recall a project a while back from some starchitect (Graves? Gwathmey|Siegel?) that was supposed to expand the museum space largely underground, under the terrace facing the pond. Seems there was an uproar then and no funding...